It’s fabric time again, we just finished adding lots of new Michael Miller fabrics to our shop. We have lots of new collections with adorable animal prints, but also cool graphical designs with polka dots and other patterns. We can also introduce a new material in our shop: cotton sateen. It is 100% cotton but a little heavier than regular Michael Miller cotton fabrics. It has a wonderful smooth feel and is therefore very suitable for sewing light home decor like cushions, curtains, kitchen decoration and so on. The cotton sateen fabrics from the bekko collection by designer Trenna Travis come in wonderful graphical prints such as stripes, swirls, waves and more which are great designs for home decor.
One of the things we really loved on the Japan Hobby Show in Tokyo were the adorable felt items. We saw lots of lovely little fugures made completely from felt, such as litte animals, matryoshkas, Halloween items or sweets. We don’t carry any of these DIY sets in our shop yet, but it certainly made us think about getting some.
kawaii felt animals in sailor theme
The little felt items make adorable decorations
The cute little sailor matryoshkas made with felt are awesome
These sets would be a great gift for children and DIY fans
Some of the actual DIY felt sets
There were hundreds of books about felt crafting
At some booths you could craft your own felt item
A cute felt project to make knitting bears
They looked even cuter in real life
Matryoshkas seem to be a very popular design for felt crafting
kawaii little felt cats
An adorable seal in a Halloween design
Pandas rock!
kawaii felt macarons
The felt sweets look amazing
More cookies and sweets made from felt
Green is all we see, because we have been adding lots of Mameshiba products to our shop. Now you can find a big mixture of charms, plush toys, wallets, memo pads, pens, stickers, phone accessories, mobile phone plugs and bento accessories on modes4u.com.
Mameshiba are super popular Japanese characters, which are bean dogs. The most popular one is the green Edamame Mameshiba, but there are also lots of other characters such as Black Bean, Chili Bean, Tiger Bean, Sword Bean, Jelly Beans and so on. We also carry products from the cute Babyshiba series, in which the Mameshiba bean dogs are little babies, as well as the “Mameshiba x Kyary Pamyu Pamyu” collection, for which the Japanese kawaii singer Kyary Pamyu Pamyu collaborated with Mameshiba manufacturer Dentsu and created bean dogs with bows, unicorns and punks.
dark purple Mameshiba bean dog plush wallet charm
cute Dentsu green Mameshiba bean dog charm
yellow Mameshiba bean dog tin case wallet coin case
Have you ever wondered how those incredibly detailed Japanese Iwako erasers are made? We have and therefore were very pleased to find out that Iwako released a little factory tour, in which the company explains how they make those little rubber items which made them so successful. So on their website you can have a very detailed look at all the steps of manufacturing. We will break it down in a more general way for you:
1. If a new eraser is to be produced, a model maker makes a model by hand. After that molds are made from metal, so that the huge molding machines can produce the different parts of the new erasers. For every new eraser part the molds in the machines have to be changed.
2. The eraser material, which is PVC-free and environmental friendly is coloured with pigment powders and injected into the machines, where it is melded and pressed into the molds.
3. After all the different parts for each eraser are ready, they are assembled and packed by hand. Of course each eraser is checked before being packed to ensure that the quality is good.

A look behind the scenes: Here you can see what big machines are used to make the cute erasers

This is the rubber material which will later be transformed into the cute erasers

Most of the erasers consist of different parts which later assembled

Here the erasers are checked and packed
If you are looking for a new and easy way for home decoration the answer is here: Washi Tapes from the mt Casa series. The Japanese Masking Tape manufacturer mt especially designed these tapes to be used for decorating walls, furniture, tiles etc. As you can see on the pictures from the little booklet that mt released the Washi Tapes can be used to decorate anything at your home. There is no need to paint walls or hang wallpaper anymore, as the tapes can be stuck to the walls and be removed anytime without leaving any trace. The tapes stick on almost all materials such as wood, plastic, wallpaper, tiles, glass etc.
The mt Casa series is a great for decorating children’s rooms, colour up white or single-coloured furniture or walls, write messages or decorate for holidays such as Christmas or Easter.
We carry most of the tapes from the series and every colour and pattern we have is available in 3 different widths – 5cm, 10cm or 20cm. There are lots of single-coloured tapes but also a couple of designs with dots or flowers. Be sure to check out the video at the end of this post to learn what you can do with mt Casa.

Walls and furniture look super pretty with stripes of mt Casa Washi Tapes

You can also use it on doors, tiles, cupboards and more

It is a great way to decorate your home without having to paint or hang wallpapers

You can create any picture, shape or writing you want

It is a wonderful thing for the childrens room

The tapes can be removed easily without any trace

You can decorate for all seasons and occasions

The mt Casa tapes are available in many different colours, patterns and sizes
Part of our team went to Tokyo a couple of weeks ago to visit the Japan Hobby Show. It was a really great exhibition with lots to see and try. As the trade show was open to the public the whole time, there were lots of opportunities to actually use different hobby products like fabrics, clay, colours, different techniques etc. We took hundreds of pictures which we want to show to you guys. So today we’re kicking off our little series with some general impressions from the show.
Sandra next to the official poster of the Japan Hobby Show 2013
Large exhibition halls with thousands of people who try many of the presented products
Wonderful accessories
Do it yourself – people could really try lots of things
A fashion show by students who made cute candy outfits
Lots of crafting accessories like deco tapes
Not everything was girly, boys and men loved this miniature car section
Some children are assembling miniature items
Lots of ways to be creative
Super cute DIY sets to make funny play dough animals
We will probably carry these 3D papercraft frame sets in our shop soon
These DIY wall decoration sets look adorable too
kawaii tree ornaments
Really amazing miniature rooms
Lots more miniature rooms and houses
Here they are, the first two Mameshiba products we carry in our shop. Of course they are our favourite product of the week, as we have been working super hard to get them. They are iPhone hard covers for all iPhones 4S or 4 with very colourful Mameshiba bean designs. We think they are super cool as the patterns are slightly retro but the Mameshiba characters are super kawaii.
No matter if you give your mother a big present or a warm hug, a Mother’s Day card is a must. And to make one yourself is a fast an easy thing if you just have a couple of basics like Washi Tape, stamps or stickers. Today we want to show you some cards made with products from the Japanese company Kodomo No Kao. We carry lots of their stamps and they display wonderful pictures of crafted cards on their website. Most of them have pretty flower designs, so they are a nice inspiration for your own project. Have fun crafting.

Elegant and pretty flower and animal card

A super cute Japanese cherry blossom design

A big flower stamp is all you need for a great card

3D effects with flower stamps

Super simple idea with a great outcome

The cards look so professional as if they were bought from a store
Smartphones are really cool devices, but choosing a case or accessories can sometimes be more exciting than the phone itself. If you are the proud owner of the latest iPhone 5 you now have many new opportunities, because we got a whole bunch of kawaii Rilakkuma iPhone cases. There are regular plastic ones with adorable bear or chick designs, but we also have a series of plush phone case designs. They feel very fluffy and are lots of fun. If you like some bling bling you might want to take a look at our rhinestone Rilakkuma cases. They sparkle from top to bottom, as the plastic cases are covered with hundreds of glittering stones.
You might have seen it on the news already, Hong Kong has a very special visitor. A 16 meter tall yellow rubber duck is floating in Victoria Harbour and it did not just attract media from all over the world, but also thousands of Hong Kongers and tourists. We also wanted to look at this piece of art created by the Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, but it’s not an easy task. Although everybody can go and visit the duck, it is celebrated like a pop star. We almost couldn’t get through to it, as there were hundreds or even thousands of people surrounding it taking pictures.
Fortunately it still stays in Hong Kong until June 6th, so we hop to catch a time with less people.

The kawaii yellow rubber duck – on this picture you cannot even tell how tall it really is

But as soon as there are other people you see that it is quite tall

Hong Kong people love the 16 m high rubber duck